In 221 B.C., Emperor Qin unified China for the first time. To protect himself after death, he earlier ordered a mausoleum built which took 40 years and 720,000 indentured workers to finish. The mighty underground Terra-cotta Army must be buried and used wooden beams and mats before covering it with dirt. Quin dies 210 B.C. Four years later, a rebellion looted and torched the Army where it lay undiscovered until 1974.
The main pit includes some 2000 figures, many of which will never be repaired. This gives an appreciation for the size of the pit but it fails to show that there was at least 15 feet of dirt on top of these formerly damaged warriors.
The above shows an area under repair and the extent of the damage. Below are figures repaired or under repair.
Finally, some closeups of finished or copied figures.
All in all, some 7000 characters were found in four different pits.
Tomorrow we visit the city wall that surrounded ancient Xi’an, then head to Chongqing for a three day trip down the Yangtze River.